So those really exciting things that I thought were the Andes. They are not. Actually, they are not even mountains, just hills. But they're still pretty cool to look at. I went on a really good tour today, and man, this city is way huger than I can even comprehend. These pictures are about a 10th, if that much. I think I am just more confused now about how things are laid out than when I thought that Santiago didn't feel sprawling and enormous. Also some cool facts: -Chile is something like 7,000 kilometers long, and 5,000 of that is uninhabited mountains! -All of these buildings in the picture weren't there 20 years ago. modernization is pretty insane. -Also see that nasty gray blur in the middle. that's smog, well actually that's "no smog." Today was a really good day, usually you can't even see 10 feet from where we were standing. So I'm torn between being really glad the rain is over and wanting it to rain so the sky stays clear and I stop having so many black boogers.



We had this really good tour guide who is a history professor at la U and he took us to really interesting places and the whole tour was about seeing the inequality of the city and getting a grasp of the history beneath everything, and understanding how we fit into that, and that the places we think of as Santiago are really just a small portion where the middle and upper class live. He was just like Mr. Vlasits. which was pretty awesome.


This is this crazy valley within the larger valley that is Santiago that is essentially a mini-Santiago for the absolute wealthiest of all of Chile. They have thier own seperate police force, and school system, etc. It is also where Pinochet lives. scary.

something else crazy: the river here is the ugliest thing you can imagine with concrete banks and walls and not a thing living in it and I've been wondering what is up with it because it's so nasty, and apparently the real river is BELOW the highway! and everyone is just waiting for the day when the highway collapses into the river and the river can finally reclaim all the land that it should be taking up. Roads are also a serious problem here, aside from making obscene amounts of smog that circulate forever, the road system was designed for about 300,000 autos and obviously there are a lot more than that, more like 2 million, but no new roads have been built, and there's really no space. So right now the government is trying to build a big highway through this really nice neighborhood of fancy houses, so suddenly these wealthier communities who have never really been a part of the land problems like this are the ones who have to fight and get involved in movements to save their neighborhoods.



and we saw the school where protests started this spring, which also was the school where the tour guide went when he was in high school. And we talked for a minute about CADA and their art actions during the dictatorship and he said that they were a huge thing and everyone was really conscious of it and it was so exciting to hear that performance art and art in general actually was able to have an effect on social change and be really visible to people outside of the art world. We went to some streets where a lot of the main fighting and killing took place and it was really wierd sitting there. I mean I know all about this stuff, and I've read testimonies in so many books so I shouldn't be surprised. but it's different being there, you know. He was about our age, 20, when the coup happened and he asked us to imagine not being able to leave our houses at night or have any sort of normal life without living in complete and constant fear until we were 35 years old. and here we are, having our South American adventures and trying to find bars and parties on the same streets. but that's what it's like. they're just roads now and the rest is only in the collective memory of the people who lived through it. There wasn't a single plaque or memorial on that street explaining the events that took place there, or who died and so far no one really wants to talk about those years. I mean Pinochet is still living within 20 miles of them all! It's an interesting example of recovering from trauma that I really want to understand more.

some things that suck:
-there is no recycling. and the city makes 250,000 tons of trash a day. and there's nowhere to put it.
-there is basically no answer to the smog problem.
-it's possible to live here and not have any contact with the 2 million people who live on the outskirts in ghettos without paved roads.
-there's no way to get around being a gringo, and there's no way to make gringo not mean imperialism and war.